From TransFormaTion To CombaT The First stryker brigade at War

Establishing a Process
Although employing already available items, the effort to create a
new type of major combat force in less than twelve months was ambitious.
Since the brigade selected as a prototype was mechanized, it would
have to give up its current fleet of M1 Abrams and M2 Bradley Fighting
Vehicles and the associated doctrine, organization, and “mounted
combat” mindset associated with them. Even so, force designers and
doctrine developers had a head start. They could draw upon lessons they
had learned from their work with the Experimental and Strike Forces.
By 2 November they had a draft document circulating within the Army’s
leadership that discussed how the operational concept, organizational
design, and rationale for the new brigade fit within the Army’s Transformation
strategy.
As the lead agent for the Army’s Transformation, TRADOC coordinated
the effort to create the brigade just as it had those for Force XXI
and Army After Next. On 9 November 1999, General Shinseki appointed
Maj. Gen. James M. Dubik as TRADOC’s Deputy Commanding General
for Transformation. Dubik and his staff had a draft implementation
document completed little more than a month later. Under that directive
TRADOC created a Brigade Coordination Cell at Fort Lewis to oversee
the effort to establish the new unit, which would be composed of a reorganized
3d Brigade, 2d Infantry Division. The cell was to provide the
command with the firsthand perspective it needed to develop doctrine,
to craft training methodologies, to create leadership development programs,
and to sort out all the administrative and organizational details
necessary to run the new unit. The cell would also serve a useful function
as a middle manager, neatly bridging the expanse between TRADOC
concept developers and branch school force developers concerned with
the related nuts and bolts.
Step One: Reorganize, Train, and Equip
In December 1999 Army crews began evaluating thirty-five U.S.
and foreign medium-weight armored vehicles at Fort Knox, Kentucky.
As part of that effort, personnel from Fort Lewis augmented by soldiers
from Fort Benning, Georgia, and Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, participated
in a month-long performance demonstration to identify what
features the new brigade’s family of armored vehicles would require.
Few had any doubt that the unit could reduce the variety of spare parts
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